On 12/04/2017 17:28, David McCann wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:57:46 +0100 R A Brown wrote:
>
>> But _meus_ is also found as a vocative, e.g._Domine
>> meus_ is common enough. The 5th cent writer & bishop
>> Sidōnius Appolināris address one Lollius in a letter as
>> _Lollī meus_. This usage is found occasionally even in
>> Classical Latin, e.g. In Vergil we find: proice tēla
>> manū, sanguis meus! "Cast weapons from your hand, oh my
>> blood!" [i.e. my son] [Aeneid VI, 835]
>
> The nominative of address was always an option in formal
> or archaic speech: audi tu, populus Albanus "Hear ye, O
> Alban nation" Livy 1.24.7
Thank you, David, for another example from the Classical
period. I'm sure there are others which makes me a little
surprised that the agonizing over the vocative use of _Deus_
is dragging on and on.
[snip]
>
> Deus is described as "regular" in Gildersleeve & Lodge.
:)
I guess it depends how one defines regular. But let's not
get into that. It's certainly normal.
> Lewis & Short don't cite "dee" from anyone before
> Tertullian, whose Latin was probably a second language.
Correct - first language possibly Berber, which makes one
suspect that his _Dee_ may well be an example of
hypercorrection. The same is probably true of Prudentius'
use of _Dee_ a century or so later.
Ray